GILA RIDGE

keep everything in front of them and forced their opponents to work down the field.

Both teams went to their running backs early and often. Rios had 86 rushing yards and two touchdowns in the game, while Gila Ridge’s junior running back Renan Duarte had 105 yards and a touchdown.

They each picked up decent yardage, but neither one could really break loose.

Cibola was able to strike first in the game late in the second quarter. Gila Ridge junior quarterback Kaleb Cota was picked off by Cibola senior corner and receiver Gabriel Ramirez early in the second. That play set up an 11-play 54yard drive that was capped off by a one-yard QB sneak from Ethan Arvizo with 3:26 left in the half.

Giving up the touchdown sent the Hawks into a hurry-up mode before the break. Cota started looking for junior receiver Dom Jones and Duarte was able to play steady on the ground. They went 65 yards in 3:42 seconds to tie the game on a three-yard run by Duarte before the break.

The Hawks continued to spread the ball around in the second half and Cota found Jones on a pumpand-go route from 17 yards to take a 14-7 lead late in the third.

“Everyone tries to take away our ground game and we have some weapons outside,” Semler said. “We wanted to spread the field out and take advantage of the mismatches we have downfield. Kaleb Cota and Dom Jones did that well and consistently.”

After playing conservatively in the first half, the Raiders began airing the ball out underneath a little bit. Arvizo found junior Cristian Bonilla, Ramirez and Chavez on the next drive.

Rios finished that drive for his team with a 14-yard run to tie it at 14 early in the fourth quarter.

“They kept everything in front of them,” Cibola coach Lucky Arvizo said. “At halftime we made some adjustments and changed our gameplan.”

After the tie Gila Ridge responded with another passing touchdown from Cota, this time to junior D’Angelo Jackson. Gila Ridge took a 21-14 lead with 5:48 left in the game.

The Hawks had all of the momentum in the closing minutes, but they gave that up with a series of self-inflicted wounds that Cibola made them pay for.

On the ensuing kickoff Gila Ridge had two 15-yard penalties, which set of the Raiders at the Hawks’ 25.

Cibola fell into a 4thand-13 situation a few plays later, but Ethan Arvizo found Chavez on a broken route for 24 yards. Rios punched it in from three yards on the next play.

Now down 21-20, Lucky Arvizo decided to roll the dice and run a play that they’ve been practicing for a situation like this for a while. Ethan Arvizo found Chavez on that receiver option and that pulled his team up 22-21 with 3:26 left.

“We’ve been practicing that play for a few weeks for whenever we’d have an opportunity to go for a twopoint conversion,” he said. “I thought it was a good time in the game to do that. I had a lot of confidence in our guys to execute it. They did an excellent job with their execution and all of their hard work for this one moment.”

The Hawks did have one more rally in them. Cota led the team down the field in a two-minute drill, while his team managed the timeouts judiciously. On 4thand-17 from the Cibola 23 Cota tossed a jump ball up to Jackson, who was single covered near the pylon.

Jackson brought the ball in for what appeared to be a touchdown for a moment, but that was soon called off after an offensive pass interference call. Cota would throw an interception on the next down, a 4th-and-32 heave, which allowed the Raiders to take a knee.

The loss likely eliminated any chance that Gila Ridge had at making the 4A playoffs this season. The team is 16th in 4A. Three of the Hawks’ four losses came by seven points or less and were decided in the final minutes of games.

“It’s just a maturity thing. We have some growing pains,” Semler said. “That’s why we went from 1-9 to 3-7 and now 6-4. It’s going in the right direction. The boys are buying into the system. We’re just a play or two here and there from totally changing our record around. Those are the kind of plays that experienced players make. The more games that they play in like t his, the better they are going to get.”